Oct. 7 survivor says about 50 music festival survivors committed suicide after attack

About 50 people who survived the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre at the Nova Music Festival have subsequently committed suicide, survivor Guy Ben Shimon testified Tuesday during a hearing at the Knesset.

"Few people know, but there have been almost 50 suicides among the Nova survivors. This number, which was true two months ago, may have increased since," Ben Shimon said at the State Audit Commission hearing focusing on the treatment of Oct. 7 survivors, according to the Israeli outlet i24 News.  

About 3,500 people attended the event which was promoted as a "psy trance music festival" over the weekend of Simchat Torah, one of the happiest Jewish holidays. On Saturday, Oct. 7, Hamas and other terrorists invaded Israel and killed about 1,200 people, including more than 360 people at the festival alone. Terrorists from Gaza also kidnapped about 250 people, including some 40 people who attended the event.

Ben Shimon said that many of his friends who survived the onslaught were unable to recover from their experience. 

"There are many survivors who had to be forcibly hospitalized due to their psychological state. My friends are not getting out of bed, neither am I," he also said. "I am practically unable to do anything. I had to get a dog to help me survive in my daily life. The goal for all of us is to return to work and function normally, but we cannot do it without adequate help."

Another survivor testified during the hearing about difficulties trying to obtain care for post-traumatic stress disorder related to the attack. 

"Why should I constantly prove what I experienced? Why am I forced to go back to the details of what I experienced for them to believe me?" survivor Naama Eitan said. 

"I participated in a study that monitored my pulse and other parameters and revealed how bad my health is. I sleep on average two hours a night. Each morning at seven o'clock, I relive the moments when I was hidden in the bushes with terrorists passing by me. I can no longer move on my own, I need to be constantly accompanied," she also said. 

The Israeli Health Ministry said it does not have any information about reports of survivors who committed suicide.

Follow Madeleine Hubbard on X or Instagram.